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Apple’e New Mac App Store to Launch 6 January 2011

Apple’s much anticipated launch of their new Mac App Store is scheduled for January 6, 2011. The store will be available in 90 countries at launch, and like its mobile counterpart, it will feature access to both paid and free apps across several categories, including education, productivity, and games, among others. Users will be able to download the Mac App Store through Software Update.

The Mac App Store experience is expected to be familiar to those who currently have devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The marketplace’s users will be able to get information about Apps prior to downloading them, as well as see customer ratings and reviews. Updates to apps users have installed will be available through the Mac App Store, Apple said.

“The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun.” Jobs however was specifically referring to PC (Personal Computer) Apps running on the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system and not Windows PC’s.

Developers who choose to offer paid apps will be able to keep 70 percent of the revenue generated from their programs, while Apple will take the remaining 30 percent. In addition, those who offer free apps will not be charged by Apple to offer their programs in the Mac App Store.

The Mac Operating System, although excellent has always had one glaring issue – the very small availability of software applications compared to Windows OS. Using the mobile App Store as a model, this Mac App Store might just be a game changer for Apple to get a larger market share for desktop and laptop computers.